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Apr. 17th, 2017 07:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chocolatepotStarted to read Tasha Alexander's And Only to Deceive. I'm going to keep reading for a bit, but in just the first few chapters it's already hit me with a number of Victorian-historical-fiction tropes I hate:
- Well-born girl who doesn't want to get married Just Because (but has no apparent goal that marriage would interfere with)
- Mother who makes Mrs. Bennet look chill and hands-off (even after her daughter is married very well and then widowed, she's still attempting to bother her into remarrying Just Because)
- Father who is quietly indulgent but never interferes with the mother's awfulness
- Even second mourning dress is inherently dreary and unattractive, and wearing any mourning is the worst thing ever
- Women at any level of mourning must seclude themselves at home with the curtains drawn, even in second mourning for a husband they were married to for six months
- "Please, let us dispense with formalities since we've been talking for fifteen minutes. Call me by my first name, eligible man."
- Female characters are either twittering, conventional idiots or magnificent unconventional grande dames
Not a trope but irritating anyway: "Mr. Worth will be coming to my rooms [in Paris] this afternoon." If there is one thing we can all agree on about Worth, IT'S THAT HE DOESN'T COME TO YOU. Gawd.
- Well-born girl who doesn't want to get married Just Because (but has no apparent goal that marriage would interfere with)
- Mother who makes Mrs. Bennet look chill and hands-off (even after her daughter is married very well and then widowed, she's still attempting to bother her into remarrying Just Because)
- Father who is quietly indulgent but never interferes with the mother's awfulness
- Even second mourning dress is inherently dreary and unattractive, and wearing any mourning is the worst thing ever
- Women at any level of mourning must seclude themselves at home with the curtains drawn, even in second mourning for a husband they were married to for six months
- "Please, let us dispense with formalities since we've been talking for fifteen minutes. Call me by my first name, eligible man."
- Female characters are either twittering, conventional idiots or magnificent unconventional grande dames
Not a trope but irritating anyway: "Mr. Worth will be coming to my rooms [in Paris] this afternoon." If there is one thing we can all agree on about Worth, IT'S THAT HE DOESN'T COME TO YOU. Gawd.
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